You are the cure!

Don’t think I don’t know the feeling of being afraid to answer the phone or open my mailbox because of debt notices from a variety of public and private sources. Yes, a few years ago, I had them all after me. This included credit card companies, the IRS, a mortgage company, a hospital, and an auto finance company. It was a perfect storm of bad news, and I can tell you, I cringed every time the phone rang or I went to get the mail.

Yes, some incorrect business decisions, a medical issue, and a sad divorce forced me into a situation where I was out of love and out of luck.

All I wanted to do was crawl back into my bed. Of course, the last thing I wanted to do was to respond to any of these people. The problem was that I needed to do something about my debt issues, or I was facing the prospect of losing my bed, or at least, I was facing the prospect of losing my roof and having the bed tossed out on the street.

I couldn’t even rely upon the old standby of sleeping in my car because the auto finance company had some issues with me too! Friends were advising me to park my car on the other side of the street or around the block. This situation was just not sustainable.

At some point, I managed to shake myself out of my paralysis and realize that the worst thing I could do was refuse to confront the issues that were swirling around me.

I really needed to pick up the phone and learn my options. I needed help, but where could I turn? I already had a feeling that those late-night TV advertisements for debt remediation services weren’t going to be free. I had no idea if they would be helpful.

Of course, I mistakenly believed that the big problem was that I lacked money!

A Lack of Money Was Not My Biggest Problem

Of course, a lack of money was not the biggest problem I had. Almost everybody has struggled with financial issues at some point in their life. The biggest problem was that I was ashamed and embarrassed about having fallen into a financial abyss. The debt wasn’t the biggest problem. My lack of funds was not the biggest problem.

The way I felt emotionally about debt was the biggest problem.

My own emotions were the biggest problem, and the first thing that you need to do before you can fix your finances is to become objective about the problem. Do you owe $5,000, $50,000, or $500,000? Do you even know how much you owe, or do you just know that the phone won’t stop ringing because your creditors want to get paid?

I’m sorry that you are facing hard times. However, the first thing you have to do is rid yourself of negative emotions about your problem. Sure, it’s a huge problem, but you do have rights, protections, and solutions. Begin working on building a better tomorrow and stop focusing on what you cannot change. It’s easy to guess how you feel about your debt, but you need to understand that you will feel better once you start handling it.

Debt Remedies Work Better Earlier Than Later

Also, while I expect that many readers will be in dire straights, I really hope to get to people who are just beginning to feel the pinch. The sooner that you can address your debt issues, the easier time you will have. Some debt remedies help if you are already buried in debt and have ruined your credit scores, but more of them work a lot better if you can implement them before you have fallen into an abyss.

In fact, the three simply debt remedies that are laid out in this introductory chapter are good suggestions for anybody.